Home Artcollection » Artists » Gottfried Mairwöger
Gottfried Mairwöger (Tragwein 1951-2003 Vienna) hitchhiked across Europe as a teenager to visit famous museums and study works of art in the original. His admiration for Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin, as well as for American Abstract Expressionism and French Informel, reinforced his decision to pursue an artistic career. Mairwöger studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Josef Mikl and Wolfgang Hollegha. In the course of a group exhibition in Hamburg, the young artist met the American art historian Clement Greenberg, who invited him to a working stay in New York. This encounter and the experiences on site left a lasting impression on Mairwöger. Back in Vienna, he created his first large-format, non-representational works. Working residencies in Europe, the USA, Africa and on various tropical islands followed, with Mairwöger preferring to work directly in nature and on several works and variations at the same time. His emotionally dense painting is always influenced by light moods and color impressions of his travels abroad. For his œuvre Gottfried Mairwöger was awarded the Förderpreis of the province of Upper Austria and the Monsignor Otto Mauer Prize. His works are now in many important collections and museums worldwide, including Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Albertina Vienna.
www.mairwoeger.com
